FROM SUEZ TO SINAl/^ 



2G7 



many of the people were "able to go forth to war." Then, 

 accepting the modem average of one man in every fourteen of the 

 total population being liable to military service, he makes a calcu- 

 lation which yields a total of 77,000 people. To this number we 

 must add the Levites, "from one month old and upward," as given 

 in Num. iii, 39, some 22,000 — where the details are expressed in a 

 way that makes it impossible to find " clan " beneath the ALAF. 

 Hence a grand total of a hundred thousand souls. Dr. Hoskins 

 adds : " This number, I am convinced, from a large number of sub- 

 sidiary lines of argument, will be found substantially correct." In 

 case, however, as some would prefer, one in ten of the population 

 should be accepted as the proportion of those who were " able to go 

 forth to war," then the total would be 77,500 instead of 100,000. 



The theory so recently propounded having been thus outlined, it 

 remains for me to remark that, so far. Oriental scholars in general 

 have not given adhesion thereto. In his Commentary on "Exodus" 

 {Cambridge Bible for- Schools and Colleges)^ issued in 1911, Dr. Driver 

 declares the view "improbable"; and I have reason to believe 

 that his mature judgment is against the theory. Moreover, 

 Dr. McNeile, in his Commentary on " Numbers " (same series), also 

 issued in 1911, holds that the theory raises new difficulties, both 

 in relation to the text of Scripture and Israelitish history. For 

 myself, though in some senses the view seems very attractive, I 

 note one passage in the Pentateuch which seems impossible of recon- 

 ciliation with the suggestion. In Exodus xxxviii, details are given 

 (on the basis of the first census) of the tax of a bekah (half a shekel) 

 a head levied upon the people for gold and silver work in connection 

 with the Tabernacle. Whereas we find (in vv. 25, 26) the product 

 of 1,775 shekels, in respect of 3,550 men, there is also, in the same 

 passage, mention of a hundred talents, the application of which is 

 described with equal plainness (m 25, 27). In case a talent repre- 

 sents 3,000 shekels, which I find to be the case, this means an 

 additional body of 600,000 men contributing the bekah — in other 

 words, a total of 603,550 men, thus (apparently) excluding the 

 rendering of "family" or "clan" in regard to the census total, when 

 the same is viewed in the light of its yield in taxes. 



Notwithstanding this bar to the theory, as I conceive it, having 

 regard to the wide-ranging importance of the subject, I have 

 deemed a summary of the most recent suggestions worthy of presen- 

 tation in this connection. The proposal is, at least, ingenious ; and 

 the issue may prove to be of profound significance. While unwilling 

 to tamper with the text of Scripture, or in any degree to call in 

 question its Divine inspiration, I am deeply concerned to under- 

 stand it — to understand it, on the one hand in the light of the 

 language in which it has come down to us, and on the other hand 

 in the light of the conditions and circumstances of the region in 

 which the events took place, as described in the Sacred Records. 



